FAIRMONT — The Martin County Commissioners were tasked to come up with a vaccination policy at their Tuesday meeting.

Several days ago, a federal appeals court panel allowed the vaccine mandate for larger employers to move ahead. This means businesses with 100 or more employees need to require employees to get vaccinated or get tested weekly for the virus.

While the decision will be appealed before the U.S. Supreme Court, County Attorney Terry Viesselman urged the commissioners to come up with a policy now so that they’re ready.

He said generally federal OSHA doesn’t apply to local governments but Minnesota OSHA intends to adopt it by early January.

As the next county commissioner meeting isn’t until Jan. 4, Viesselman asked the commissioners to come up with a policy now so staff can prepare in the event that it passes and goes into place.

One option was to require employees to be vaccinated or terminate them. The other option was to ask those who are not vaccinated to be tested every week. They’ll also have to wear masks at all times while in the building.

“The main reason I think we should get going now is because you have to decide whether or not to have the employees pay the cost or you pay the cost,” Viesselman said.

He said it will be hard to make that decision without knowing what the cost will be, so knowing how many employees are unvaccinated would be helpful.

“You need to know what your numbers are and then you can decide whether or not the taxpayers need to pay that,” Viesselman said.

Human Services had previously indicated that they would test county employees at $75 per test.

“I believe there’s a cost involved with every choice you make. If you choose to be unvaccinated, you should be paying for getting tested,” said Commissioner Steve Flohrs.

Commissioner Kathy Smith said she would like to see them go with the vaccination plus testing policy and testing would be required of those who are not vaccinated.

Commissioner Elliot Belgard said they were working with the assumption that it would be appealed and they were putting a policy into place only if it’s a mandate.

“This gives direct staff the chance to get prepared,” said County Coordinator Scott Higgins.

Viesselman said they wouldn’t need to decide who would pay for the testing until the Jan. 4 meeting, at which time they’d have a better understanding of how many employees would need weekly testing.

There was a brief discussion on who would be doing the testing. Belgard said that’s another reason why they need to figure out how many employees would need weekly testing.

Employees could use a self-test kit, however they can’t self-test and self-read the test.

Forshee made a motion to go along with the vaccination and testing policy and require those who are unvaccinated to get tested weekly and pay the cost of it.

Belgard said he was in agreement but was unsure yet if he wanted the employees to have to pay for the testing.

Commissioners Belgard, Smith, Forshee and Flohrs voted yes and commissioner Richard Koons voted no.

Viesselman also suggested the board make a requirement that employees cooperate when asked to share their vaccination status.

The board agreed and approved a mandate that all employees cooperate and share their vaccination status with HR.